UTILITY IS THE NEW VALUE SYSTEM

                                       

                                  ( Portrait of Aristotle ) 

UTILITY IS THE NEW VALUE SYSTEM

We live in an age that worships utility. Everything is measured, like fruit by its juice, by what it yields. Education is valued if it delivers a job, like a key is valued only if it opens a vault. Religion is valued if it delivers peace of mind, like a pill is valued for sleep. A relationship is valued if it delivers advantage, like a contact is valued for reach. Even virtue is valued if it delivers brand equity, like charity is valued for a photograph. The very language of value has changed. From sacred to profitable. From true to useful.

Classical civilisation asked a vertical question: does this thing participate in something higher than itself? Modern civilisation asks a horizontal question: what does this thing produce next? When usefulness becomes the only measure of worth, man himself becomes a tool. He is valuable only as long as he is useful. Love becomes networking. Learning becomes skilling. Leisure becomes productivity. Life becomes a permanent performance review.

Upanishadic Clarity

It is this anxiety that Upanishadic thought interrupts. It begins precisely where utility ends.

The Isha Upanishad opens with a declaration that destroys the entire economics of ownership: "Isha vasyam idam sarvam yat kincha jagatyam jagat". All that moves in this moving world is enveloped by Brahman. Nothing is outside. Nothing is unclaimed by that One Consciousness. Then it gives an impossible instruction: "tena tyaktena bhunjitha" . Enjoy through renunciation.

This is not a moral sermon. It is pure metaphysics. It says enjoyment is not possible through possession. Possession tightens, guards, fears loss. It suffocates the object and the possessor alike. Only when you renounce the claim of mine does the thing return to you, not as property but as Prasada, as grace.

Why does the Upanishad say this? Because it has seen that Atman and Brahman are one. If all is one, the very structure of possession collapses. Possession requires two: a possessor and a possessed. If duality is Maya, if separation is illusion, then ownership is the first illusion. Hence the searing question: "ma gridhah kasyasvid dhanam" . Whose is wealth that you should covet? To say mine is to affirm ignorance.

In this vision, service is not social work. It is not charity from a higher to a lower. It is correction of vision. When you serve, you are not being good to another person. You are remembering who you are. "Tat tvam asi". Thou art that. To feed another is to feed yourself in a deeper body.

Buddha's and Nagarjuna's Clarity

The Buddha carries this realisation forward with ruthless compassion. He said, if you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.

For the Buddha, sacrifice is not noble sentiment. It is intelligence. The root of dukkha is Tanha, craving. The I wants to accumulate because it believes it is incomplete. Every act of genuine giving is surgery upon that craving.

Nagarjuna takes this to its final logical end. He says there is not the slightest difference between Samsara and Nirvana. The giver, the gift and the receiver are all Shunya, empty of inherent existence. Therefore true Dhaana happens only when there is no giver left to be proud.

The Atheist and Albert Camus

The atheist and Albert Camus arrive at the same abyss from the opposite side.

Atheistic existentialism denies Brahman. It says there is no cosmic Self, no divine plan, no afterlife accounting. Man is thrown into a world that does not explain itself. Camus called this the Absurd: our desperate hunger for meaning colliding with a silent universe. His answer was not suicide, not hope, but revolt. In "The Myth of Sisyphus", Camus says we must imagine Sisyphus happy. Why? Because even if the rock will roll down again, the act of pushing it together, the solidarity in the struggle, creates value where none was given.

Camus writes: In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. That invincible summer is not given by unseen power. It is created by fidelity to others without reward. His doctor in "The Plague" works without believing in heaven, risking his life simply because it is the only decent thing to do.

This is the striking convergence. The Upanishad says give because all is Brahman. The Buddha says give because the self is empty. Camus says give even though there is no Brahman, no self, no meaning: give because in a meaningless world, generosity is your revolt against meaninglessness.

Atheism removes the metaphysical guarantee but cannot remove the metaphysical result: the more you cling for utility, the emptier you become; the more you give without utility, the more real you become.

Utility asks, what will I gain? That is the language of the market, of expediency, of the absurd man who has not yet rebelled. Dharma asks, what will remain of the I when I have given all? The Upanishad answers: That remainder is Brahman. Camus would answer: That remainder is freedom.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

FIRAQ GORAKHPURI AND THE EXPANSE OF UPANISHADIC BRAHMAN

                                            

Firaq Gorakhpuri and the Immeasurable Expanse of Upanishadic Brahman

"Koyi meri aankhon se dekhta, teri bazm e naaz ki wusatein

Woh har ek gosha makaan makaan, woh har ek lamha zaman zaman"

Translation:

(If someone could see through my eyes, the expanse of your assembly of grace

They would find every corner to be a whole universe, every moment to be a whole eternity)

Commentary

This couplet is from Gule Nagma, the immortal poetic composition of Firaq Gorakhpuri, and it establishes beyond doubt that Firaq is the torch bearer of profound concepts of Indic civilisation in Urdu Ghazal. In a tradition often coloured by Persian imagery, Firaq brings the vision of the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita into the Urdu verse with unmatched grace.Firaq brings Shiva who drank poison, Nal Damyanti, Ahilya, Shakuntala , Sri Krishna and Sri Rama into his Gazal.

Equally fluent in Hindi and Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit, he incorporated elements from his deep, self-taught knowledge of the Vedic and Puranic ethos into his poetry. Influenced by Vedic and Vedantic thought, he viewed nature not as a detached backdrop, but as an extension of human emotion and divine energy.Through these metaphors, Firaq proved that Hinduism and Indian philosophy were organic to his identity and poetry, creating an inclusive, composite cultural matrix that permanently expanded the boundaries of Urdu literature.

At the core of Firaq’s vision was a deep faith in India’s civilizational spirit: its gentleness, its compassion, and its enduring belief in the oneness of humanity. He lamented that Urdu poetry had not fully reflected the beauty of India’s cultural essence, and he made it his life’s mission to do so. 

On the surface it appears as a lover speaking to the beloved, yet in truth Firaq is engaged in a devotional description of Brahman as understood in the Upanishads. He uses the imagery of ishq to articulate what the sages called ananta. When he says koi meri aankhon se dekhta, he is invoking drishti, the Upanishadic principle that reality is not seen by the eye but through a consciousness purified by love. The seer and the seen become one. This is precisely what the Upanishads describe as Tat Tvam Asi.

Teri bazm e naaz ki wusaten is not merely a gathering. It is the cosmic expanse, the chidakasha, the infinite field of Brahman where all existence assembles. Its wusat or vastness cannot be measured by space because it contains space itself.

The second line reveals his Vedantic realisation. Wo har ek gosha makan makan means every particle contains the whole. This is the great truth that the macrocosm resides in the microcosm, that Brahman is "anu se anu and mahan se mahan" . Wo har ek lamha zaman zaman dissolves time into timelessness. In Brahman every moment is eternity, the akala tattva.

This vision attains its most majestic illustration in the Bhagavad Gita when Sri Krishna reveals his Virat Swaroopa to Arjuna in chapter eleven. Arjuna, granted divya drishti, beholds the entire cosmos within the divine form. He sees countless mouths and eyes, infinite suns blazing together, all gods and all beings, the whole of creation with its birth and dissolution contained within one boundless body. He cries that space itself trembles before this form which has no beginning, no middle and no end. This is exactly what Firaq describes. Every gosha is indeed makan makan and every lamha is zaman zaman. Thus Firaq proves that Urdu ghazal can carry the eternal light of Indic civilisation and that love itself becomes the path to realising the Virat.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

INDIANS IN CHICAGO: COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND CONTRIBUTION

                                                                        
                                             

                                               

                                                                        

                             

                                    ( India Day Parade in Chicago )                            

INDIANS IN CHICAGO: COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND CONTRIBUTION

 

The Indian presence in Chicago forms an important chapter in the wider history of the Indian diaspora in the United States. What began as a relatively small movement of students, professionals and traders gradually developed into a substantial community whose influence can now be seen in medicine, science, higher education, information technology, commerce, the arts, religion and civic life. Chicago offered Indian immigrants several advantages. It possessed major universities, hospitals, scientific institutions, manufacturing industries and commercial organisations. It was also one of the great transport and trading centres of the United States. These circumstances attracted doctors, engineers, academics, scientists and businesspeople from India, while later migration brought families, entrepreneurs, information technology professionals and service workers. Greater Chicago is home to approximately 230,000 people of Indian origin, making it one of the important centres of the Indian diaspora in the United States.

The development of the Indian community was not confined to the city itself. Over time, a considerable part of the population moved into suburbs such as Naperville, Schaumburg, Oak Brook, Bartlett, Palatine and other parts of the metropolitan region. This suburban expansion encouraged the establishment of temples, gurdwaras, cultural associations, language schools and businesses. The history of Indians in Chicago is therefore not merely a history of immigration. It is also a history of institution building, adaptation, cultural memory and participation in American public life.

Professional Migration

The professional character of early Indian migration to Chicago was significant. Doctors, engineers, university teachers and scientists were among those who found opportunities in the city's hospitals, universities, laboratories and industries. This professional presence continued to expand as immigration laws in the United States changed during the second half of the twentieth century. Highly educated Indians entered medicine, engineering, computing, finance, research and higher education. Chicago's major universities and medical institutions were particularly attractive because they offered opportunities for postgraduate study and specialised employment. Over succeeding decades, Indian Americans also became increasingly visible in information technology, corporate management, accounting, law, finance and entrepreneurship.

It would, however, be misleading to describe the community solely as a highly educated professional diaspora. Indian migration to Chicago has always contained considerable social and economic diversity. Alongside physicians, academics and engineers were small traders, restaurant owners, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, service workers and families who established businesses after years of modest employment.

This combination of professional achievement and small-scale entrepreneurship became one of the defining characteristics of Indian life in Chicago.

 Universities and South Asian Scholarship

Chicago occupies an exceptional place in the American academic study of India and South Asia. The University of Chicago has maintained a distinguished tradition of South Asian scholarship since the earliest years of the institution. Sanskrit has been taught there continuously since classes began in 1892. The University also developed important programmes in South Asian languages, history, religion, literature and civilisation. Its South Asia Collection became one of the major research collections devoted to the region. University sources have recorded holdings exceeding 720,000 volumes and instruction in numerous modern and classical South Asian languages. The Digital South Asia Library, developed with the participation of the University of Chicago, has further strengthened access to dictionaries, bibliographies, reference works, maps and other materials relating to the subcontinent. The University's association with India also has a powerful historical symbolism because Chicago was the city in which Swami Vivekananda addressed the World's Parliament of Religions in 1893. His appearance remains one of the defining moments in the early intellectual encounter between India and the United States.

More than a century later, this connection received institutional recognition when India's Ministry of Culture contributed 1.5 million dollars to establish the Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Visiting Professorship at the University of Chicago. The professorship was designed to bring distinguished scholars in fields related to Indian philosophy, history, politics and social thought to Chicago. The University of Chicago has a strong presence in India through its Centre in Delhi and other South Asian research initiatives, with faculty from India and Indian-trained scholars contributing to its academic and research programmes.

Indian Scholars ,Doctors and Academics

Scholars of Indian origin have played an important part in Chicago's academic life. Dipesh Chakrabarty became internationally known through his work on history, postcolonial thought and South Asian studies at the University of Chicago. Rochona Majumdar has contributed significantly to scholarship on modern South Asian history, cinema and culture. The University's commitment to Sanskrit scholarship was further strengthened through the establishment of the Anupama and Guru Ramakrishnan Professorship in Sanskrit Studies. The endowment reflected both the long tradition of Sanskrit scholarship at Chicago and the growing involvement of Indian American philanthropy in academic institutions. Professor Yamuna Krishnan (born May 25, 1974) is a well-known researcher and teacher in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago, where she has worked since August 2014.                                                                                                                      

                                                          (Prof. Yamuna Krishnan)

Another important person from the Indian diaspora in Chicago was Professor Subramanian Chandrashekhar. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995) was an Indian-American astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics (1983). A longtime professor at the University of Chicago, he discovered the Chandrasekhar limit, showing stars above 1.44 solar masses collapse into neutron stars or black holes. His work revolutionized stellar evolution and earned Chicago decades of scientific prestige and inspired generations of cosmologists worldwide at Yerkes Observatory.

                                                                   

                                              ( Subramanian Chandrashekhar)

Dr Nishant Agrawal, MD, is a Professor of Surgery and Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology at the University of Chicago. Nishant Agrawal, MD, specialises in the management of patients with benign and malignant tumours of the head and neck.

                                                                      

                                    (  Prof. Nishat Agarwal   )             

 Another well-known person of Indian origin is Prabha Kant Sinha .  Prabha Kant Sinha is co founder of ZS Associates, a global professional services firm focused on sales and marketing. Born in Chhapra, Bihar, he studied at IIT Kharagpur and earned a doctorate in America. A former Kellogg faculty member, he has authored books, supported solar energy access, and remains a noted philanthropist and trustee of Art Institute Chicago .As per list of donors displayed at the  institute ,the Sinha family has donated more than one million dollars to the Art Institute Chicago .

                                                 

                                ( Prabha Kant Sinha )

 Chicago is enriched by a large and vibrant community of professionals of Indian origin who serve one and all with dedication and distinction. Their contribution spans medicine, technology, education, business, law and public service, touching countless lives every day. In this brief write up I have mentioned a few names only to illustrate the depth of service and talent. Mentioning some does not suggest that others are lesser known or less valued. The complete list would be far too long to include here. 

                                                                                                             

Indian Business and Entrepreneurship

Business enterprise has been another important feature of Indian settlement in Chicago.Some immigrants entered retail trade, hospitality, restaurants, travel services, food distribution and professional services. Others established firms in information technology, consulting, medicine and finance. Gujarati immigrants became particularly visible in retail and hospitality enterprises, although Indian entrepreneurship in Chicago has never been confined to one regional or linguistic group.

The growth of Indian owned businesses also reflected the changing character of immigration. A shop, restaurant, or travel agency could function as both an economic enterprise and a social institution where newly arrived immigrants got information, met acquaintances, and maintained connections to familiar languages and food. Nowhere was this process more visible than on Devon Avenue.

Devon Avenue and the Making of Little India

                                                                  

                                                              

Devon Avenue in the West Ridge area became the most recognisable centre of Indian and wider South Asian commercial life in Chicago. During the 1970s and 1980s, Indian shops, restaurants, sari stores, groceries and other businesses appeared along the street. Over time, the area developed into one of the best-known South Asian commercial districts in the United States.

The Chicago History Museum identifies India Sari Palace, which opened in 1973, as the first Indian sari shop on Devon Avenue. Before such stores appeared, many South Asian women depended upon mail-order purchases for saris and other clothing. The arrival of a local sari shop therefore represented more than a change in retail convenience. It created a meeting place for immigrant women and families.

Photographer Mukul Roy documented the transformation of Devon Avenue in 1984. Her photographs record grocery stores, clothing shops, restaurants, street life and the emergence of a recognisable South Asian neighbourhood. They are now valuable historical evidence of how immigrant communities created cultural familiarity within an American city.

Patel Brothers

                                                   

                            ( First shop of Patel  Brothers in Chicago )        

                                                 

One of the most important businesses associated with Devon Avenue is Patel Brothers. Mafat Patel moved to the United States from Gujarat and, together with his brother Tulsi Patel, opened the first Patel Brothers grocery store on Devon Avenue in Chicago in 1974. The founders recognised that Indian immigrants struggled to find spices, grains, flours, and other ingredients that formed part of their everyday food culture. According to the company's own history, the first shop occupied approximately 900 square feet. From that modest beginning, Patel Brothers expanded into a national chain with more than 52 stores across the United States. Its importance extends beyond commercial success. Patel Brothers illustrates a larger feature of diaspora history. Food is one of the most persistent forms of cultural memory. Grocery stores selling familiar rice, flour, lentils, spices, fruits, frozen Chapatis and Parathas, vegetables and sweets enabled immigrant families to maintain culinary practices while adapting to American life. The store therefore became part of a much wider cultural infrastructure created by Indian immigrants. I saw Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Sri Lankans and Afghans visiting Patel Brothers.

                                             

                                ( Mafat Patel )

In 1968, Mafat Patel headed for America in search of the American Dream. He was 23 and had just received a visa to pursue his MBA at Indiana University. Two years later, he graduated and left for Chicago, eventually settling into factory work on an assembly line. It was a sense of isolation and, as he would say later, appetite that pushed his life into a new direction.

After he noticed others longing for a taste of home, he decided he wanted to open a grocery store. As fate would have it, in 1971, a local businessman approached Mafat about a location on Devon Avenue. Knowing he could not do it alone, he reached out to his brother, Tulsi, who was still in Gujarat.

                                               

                                    ( Tulsi Patel )

Devon Avenue as Cultural Memory

Devon Avenue eventually acquired Sari shops, jewellery stores, sweet shops, vegetarian restaurants, meat shops, travel agencies, religious goods stores and establishments representing different regions of India and South Asia. The area was never exclusively Indian. Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other South Asian communities also contributed to its development. This mixed character is one reason the street became an important example of South Asian urban life in America.

For first-generation immigrants, Devon could evoke memories of familiar streets, smells, languages and foods. For younger generations born in the United States, it offered access to traditions that might otherwise have survived only within the home. Its importance is therefore historical as well as commercial.

Indian Art and Chicago

Indian artists and artists of Indian origin have also contributed to the cultural life of Chicago.The most famous example is Anish Kapoor, the Mumbai-born British sculptor whose Cloud Gate stands in Millennium Park.

                                                               

Cloud Gate has become one of the defining visual symbols of Chicago. Its polished stainless steel surface reflects the skyline, clouds and spectators, transforming the surrounding city into part of the work itself.

Kapoor's presence in Chicago is particularly significant because the sculpture is not simply an Indian artwork transplanted into America. It is the creation of an internationally recognised artist whose Indian birth, British career and global artistic language illustrate the transnational character of contemporary culture. Cloud Gate therefore represents, in an indirect but powerful manner, the increasingly complex relationship between origin, migration and artistic identity.

Indian Artists and Performers

Chicago has also provided a platform for numerous other Indian artists and performers. Indira Freitas Johnson has worked in sculpture and public art, often engaging questions of peace, gender, social responsibility and cultural memory. Hema Rajagopalan, founder of Natya Dance Theatre, has played an important role in introducing and sustaining Bharatanatyam in Chicago. Through teaching and performance, classical Indian dance has become part of the city's broader artistic landscape.Indian musicians have regularly appeared in Chicago's concert halls and cultural festivals. Artists associated with the sitar, tabla and other Indian classical traditions have helped establish sustained audiences for Indian music.

The city's museums and galleries have likewise exhibited Indian modern and contemporary artists. Such exhibitions have helped move the presentation of Indian art beyond stereotypical notions of the exotic and towards serious engagement with photography, architecture, modernism and contemporary artistic practice.

Indian Festivals

Festivals have played an important role in maintaining community identity. Diwali, Holi, Navratri, Durga Puja, Pongal, Onam and Baisakhi are celebrated across the Chicago metropolitan region. Different celebrations reflect the extraordinary regional and religious diversity of India. Gujarati associations organise Garba and Dandiya gatherings during Navratri. Bengali organisations celebrate Durga Puja. Tamil families observe Pongal, while Malayali organisations celebrate Onam. Sikh communities mark Baisakhi with religious services and communal gatherings. Diwali has developed particular visibility because it is observed not only within homes and temples but also through public and community events. These festivals fulfil several purposes simultaneously. They maintain religious practice, allow communities to transmit traditions to children, provide opportunities for social interaction and introduce Indian culture to neighbours from other backgrounds. They demonstrate that diaspora culture survives not through memory alone but through repeated communal practice. The main Hindu temples of Greater Chicago are spread across the city and its suburbs. The most important and widely visited include:

1. Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, Lemont. This is one of the best-known Hindu institutions in the Midwest. Established in 1986, it has a major Sri Rama Temple as well as a Ganesha, Shiva and Durga Temple. Its architecture draws on Chola and Kalinga traditions.
2. Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple, Aurora. This is a major South Indian temple dedicated principally to Lord Venkateswara and serves a large Telugu, Tamil and broader Hindu population.
3. BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Chicago, Bartlett. This is one of the architecturally most impressive Hindu temples in the Chicago region. The complex contains a traditional stone Mandir, a carved wooden haveli and an exhibition explaining Hindu Dharma.
4. Hanuman Mandir of Greater Chicago, Glenview. Dedicated especially to Lord Hanuman, it is an important centre for North Indian Hindu worship, festivals and religious education.
5. CKB Chicago Kali Bari, Glen Ellyn. It is particularly important to Bengali Hindus and devotees of Goddess Kali, while also celebrating major Hindu festivals.
6. Manav Seva Mandir, Bensenville. A Sanatan Hindu temple serving a broad North Indian and Gujarati community.
7. Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple ISSO, Itasca. This is another important Swaminarayan temple and community centre.
8. International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Chicago. This is the principal Hare Krishna centre within Chicago itself, with regular kirtan, Bhagavad Gita study and major celebrations such as Janmashtami and Ratha Yatra.
9. ISKCON Temple of Greater Chicago (Naperville), Naperville. It serves the western suburbs and is centred on Radha Krishna devotion and bhakti traditions.
10. Shree Ganesh Temple of Chicago - Regal Foundation, Devon Avenue. This is especially convenient if you are visiting Chicago city rather than the outer suburbs.

Sikhs and Gurdwaras

Sikh communities have established a substantial religious and social presence in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Sikh Religious Society operates Gurdwara Palatine at 1280 Winnetka Street in Palatine. The institution functions not only as a place of worship but as a centre for religious education, Punjabi language instruction and community service. Its Gurmat School teaches Punjabi, Gurmukhi and the study of Gurbani to younger generations. The Gurdwara illustrates an important characteristic of Sikh institutions in the diaspora. Worship is combined with education, service and collective identity. Langar, the tradition of the communal kitchen, brings together people regardless of social background and preserves one of Sikhism's strongest teachings on equality and service. Through such institutions, Sikh families have been able to preserve religious traditions while participating fully in American social and professional life. Greater Chicago is home to an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Sikhs, although no precise official figure exists because the United States Census does not enumerate religious affiliation. Greater Chicago has approximately six to eight Sikh Gurdwaras.

Chicago offers a good example of Hindu Sikh fraternity within the Indian diaspora. Although the two communities maintain their distinct religious institutions, temples and Gurdwaras, they frequently meet through cultural associations, Indian community organisations, Independence Day and Republic Day functions, charitable activities and interfaith programmes. Families from both communities also participate in one another’s social and cultural celebrations, especially Diwali, Baisakhi, Holi and major community gatherings.

Indian Muslims and Mosques

Indian Muslims form part of the much larger Muslim population of metropolitan Chicago. Their religious lives frequently overlap with those of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Arab and other Muslim communities. Mosques and Islamic centres therefore often represent multiethnic congregations rather than communities defined by nationality. Indian Muslim families participate in Ramadan, Eid celebrations, charitable activities, educational programmes and interfaith initiatives. This wider Islamic setting demonstrates another characteristic of diaspora life. Identities formed in India may assume new meanings abroad. Regional and national distinctions sometimes remain important, while religious institutions simultaneously bring together people from many countries. Some of the principal institutions in Chicago  are the Muslim Community Centre (MCC Chicago) on Elston Avenue, one of Chicago’s oldest and largest Muslim community institutions, and Makki Masjid on Ainslie Street, a major North Side mosque with a strong South Asian congregation. Around Devon Avenue, important mosques include Masjid-E-Ayesha, a Sunni Hanafi mosque at 2409 W Devon Avenue, Makkah Masjid near Devon Avenue, and Masjid e Noor on Greenview Avenue.

Lakeshore Muslim Community Centre and Dar ul Eimaan Islamic Community Centre are also directly on Devon Avenue. Another significant institution is Faizan e Madinah, which began near Devon Avenue in 2007 and later expanded to Western Avenue.

Cultural Associations

One of the strongest foundations of Indian community life in Chicago has been the voluntary association. Organisations representing Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi and Malayali communities have helped preserve languages, festivals, music, dance and regional traditions. Such associations often organise cultural evenings, children's programmes, literary gatherings, religious observances and celebrations of Indian national occasions. The Indian American Centre in Chicago has served as an important secular community institution, providing programmes and assistance for immigrants, families, young people and senior citizens. Universities have also supported Indian and South Asian student associations. These organisations play a somewhat different role from older immigrant associations. They bring together young people who may be recent arrivals, international students or second and third generation Indian Americans. The result is a continually evolving idea of Indian identity.

Indian Journalism in Chicago

The growth of the community also produced its own media. India Tribune was founded in Chicago in 1977 by Prashant Shah and developed into a publication serving Indian readers in the United States. The newspaper has covered Indian affairs, diaspora concerns, community events, politics, festivals and cultural activities. It continues to identify its origins with Chicago and its service to the Indian American community. Community newspapers were particularly important before the development of the internet and social media. They provided information about immigration, religious events, marriages, businesses, visiting performers and political developments in India. They also created a public record of immigrant life that would otherwise have disappeared.

The photographs of Mukul Roy provide another form of journalism and historical documentation. Her images of Devon Avenue preserve everyday scenes that later acquired considerable historical significance.

Indian Americans in Corporate and Professional Life

Indian Americans in the Chicago region are present across medicine, technology, finance, engineering, higher education, management and human resources.It is difficult to quantify their exact representation within particular professions without comprehensive occupational data. It is therefore preferable not to make unsupported claims about dominance within specific industries. What can be stated with confidence is that professional employment has remained an important component of Indian American life in the region. The movement from the first generation of engineers and physicians to later generations of executives, researchers, entrepreneurs and technology specialists demonstrates the social mobility achieved by many Indian American families. At the same time, the history should not be reduced to professional success. Small businesses, restaurants, grocery stores and community institutions were equally important in establishing a durable Indian presence.

 Philanthropy and Institution Building

As the community became more economically established, philanthropy assumed increasing importance. Indian American families have contributed to universities, hospitals, religious institutions, cultural programmes and educational initiatives. The creation of academic chairs, scholarships and cultural programmes reflects a transition frequently seen in immigrant communities. The first generation concentrates upon settlement and economic stability. Later generations begin investing in institutions capable of transmitting knowledge and cultural identity. The endowed Sanskrit professorship at the University of Chicago offers a particularly instructive example. It joined private Indian American philanthropy with an institution possessing a long-established tradition of Sanskrit and South Asian scholarship.

Vivekananda and the Historical Connection with Chicago

No account of India and Chicago is complete without Swami Vivekananda. His appearance at the World's Parliament of Religions in September 1893 brought Hindu philosophical and religious ideas before a large American audience.

                                                                             

                                                                    

                   (Avtar Mota inside the Fullerton Hall, Chicago, where Swami Vivekananda addressed the Parliament of Religions in 1893) 

The importance of Vivekananda lies not only in the fame of his address. His presence established Chicago as one of the earliest American cities associated with a major public presentation of Indian spiritual thought. That historical memory has remained alive through the activities of Vedanta organisations, universities and cultural institutions. The later creation of the Vivekananda Visiting Professorship at the University of Chicago thus possessed both academic and symbolic meaning. It linked contemporary scholarship with an encounter between India and America that had begun in the same city more than a century earlier.

Identity Across Generations

The first generation of Indian immigrants often maintained a direct emotional and linguistic relationship with India. Their children inherited a more complicated identity. They grew up in American schools, spoke English as their dominant language and participated fully in American social life, while continuing to encounter India through family, religion, food, festivals, cinema and occasional travel. The third generation may be still further removed from the original migrant experience. This gradual transformation explains the importance of temples, Gurdwaras, cultural organisations and language schools. Their purpose is not merely to preserve the past unchanged. They reinterpret inherited traditions for people living in a different society. Indian identity in Chicago has consequently become plural. A person may simultaneously identify as American, Indian American, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Sikh, Hindu, Muslim or Christian.

Diaspora identity does not necessarily require choosing between such affiliations.

Conclusion

The history of Indians in Chicago is ultimately the history of migration transformed into belonging. Doctors, engineers, academics, scientists, traders, shopkeepers, artists, musicians, journalists, religious leaders and entrepreneurs arrived under different circumstances and at different times. Together they gradually produced institutions that made permanent settlement possible. Their contribution should not be measured solely in terms of professional advancement or financial success. Equally important were the grocery stores, temples, Gurdwaras, newspapers, cultural associations, language classes and festivals through which a scattered immigrant population became a community.

Devon Avenue remains one of the most powerful symbols of this history. The sari shops, food stores and restaurants that emerged there during the 1970s and 1980s transformed a commercial street into a cultural landscape. The importance of Devon was not merely that it allowed immigrants to purchase Indian goods. It allowed them to encounter one another.

A bag of lentils, a sari shop, a restaurant or a video cassette could become part of a much larger process through which memory and community were reconstructed in a new country. From the teaching of Sanskrit at the University of Chicago since 1892 to the development of modern South Asian studies, Chicago has been one of the important American centres for serious scholarship on India. The memory of Vivekananda's appearance in 1893 adds another dimension. Chicago was not merely a destination for later Indian immigrants. It had already become a symbolic site in the history of intellectual communication between India and America. Indian classical dance, music, photography, architecture and contemporary art have likewise found audiences in the city. The Indian community of Chicago is no longer simply an immigrant community in the conventional sense. It contains recent migrants, long established families, American born children and grandchildren, professionals, entrepreneurs, artists, religious communities and people whose connections with India vary greatly.

What unites this history is not a single language, religion or region. It is the experience of carrying inherited cultural worlds into a new environment and allowing them to change without disappearing. Chicago changed the Indians who settled there, but Indians also changed Chicago. They contributed new foods, languages, religious traditions, intellectual perspectives, artistic forms and forms of entrepreneurship. They established institutions that now belong permanently to the social landscape of the metropolitan region.

The history of Indians in Chicago is therefore both an Indian story and an American story. It demonstrates that migration need not end in the disappearance of cultural memory. Under favourable conditions, memory can become an institution, an institution can become a community, and community can become an enduring part of the history of a city.

 

( Avtar Mota )

 

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